Some storage systems operate under an industry standard, such as the Embedded Multi-Media Card (eMMC) standard. One feature of that standard is a command queuing feature, in which a host sends a new read or write command to the storage system, and the storage system stores the command in a queue and begins processing it, while previous commands are in process or in the queue. When the storage system completes its processing of the command, the storage system sets an indication in a specific register (e.g., a queue status register). The host can send a status query to the storage system to check the status of the processing of the commands in the queue, and, in response to such a request, the storage system returns to the host the contents of the queue status register, which indicates which command(s) in the queue are ready to be executed. The host then selects a command and instructs the storage system to execute it, which can result is a data transfer between the host and the storage system. After this instruction is sent, the host can send an additional status query to the storage system to determine what other command(s) in the queue are ready to be executed. This cycle of the host sending a status query and instructing the storage system to execute a command continues until the host has executed all of the commands in the queue.